Tuesday, October 29, 2013

The Price Is Black and White?

These men are well acquainted
with my opinion on necessary punishments for sexual offenders and those who
endanger children/elderly. In an environment that lends itself to, and breeds, a
character embracing "live and let live", the crimes that are scorned most
contain an element of victimizing the helpless. That said, it's still not common
for an inmate to extoll the death sentence-most convicts oppose the concept of
courts having power over life and death. For any inmate-even one favored by most
of his peers-to emotionally express that America's position as a lighthouse of
morality and character has obviously passed with the light handed verdict in a
sex/kidnapping crime is one thing. Most inmates couldn't give a hoot for the
standing of our integrity on the world stage. It's another thing altogether for
that inmate to declare that " the piece of garbage should have been publicly
drawn and quartered or starved to death in a plexi glass box as a warning for
future offenders".

The connection between a prisoner's revulsion to
execution laws, and the public's inherent view of crime, never reached my mind
as clearly as it did that day. I understood that my emotionally charged
statements were wholly inappropriate for a different, freer setting, and
reflecting on those statements led me into a conversation with compound's most
notoriously jack-booted officer.
When he called me to his office and asked a
rhetorical question concerning "excessive" property in my cell, I had other
things on my mind-things I figured should be more important in both our minds
than some extra packs of tuna or four pairs of running shorts. My mood made it
easy to jump right in.

"The word "excessive" is right to the point,
boss-I began. How many years are excessive for the heinous crime of kidnapping
and child molestation?" His face turned into a scowl, it never gave away
amusement to the words or conversation of an inmate. He shrugged noncommittally
"There is no more time than a life sentence" This is the point I really wanted
to discuss. " you make two good points sir", but neither of them is accurate.
First the victims suffered for 10 years of the ugliest torture imaginable, and
they have to relive these things everyday in their minds- I really doubt a
circus trial will overwhelm them much more-and the finality of a death sentence
is the closest thing to closure they can have with our justice system. The
officer never moved to interrupt, which actually bothered more than satisfying
me-it indicated he could care less, or had never thought of these things,
therefor, had no air to debate them. Still I pressed on " And look around here,
man, these fools aren't suffering, they love this stuff-television, warm food,
clean cells and all the homies to share stories with. Ariel Castro is a high
profile pedophile and that means his life will be in danger so he will be stuck
in a protective custody block where he'll watch his little T.V and eat his meals
in safety-he'll probably even get mail from some freaks out there who consider
him a celebrity. He gets another 20-30 years to spend with the sick memories of
his crimes, and everyone is a joy to him. I was fairly certain I had made a
great point to him, but he wouldn't simply excuse me before finding a way to
assert his authority and rights, "What makes you think you are any better than
Ariel Castro or any other child molester in prison?" he says. Whoa!! Something
at the very surface told me how offended I should I be, after all as a prisoner,
there is nothing more anathema than rats and child molesters.

From the
lowest, self-serving drug dealer to the auto thief and murderer by negligence,
all have a direct effect on the comfort, safety, and general intercourse of the
community. Even though truth resides just beneath the exterior of my sober
disposition in here, I maintain that there are degrees to crimes committed,
beginning with the individual's character and intent. This was my only segue to
continue a discussion he so nonchalantly had turned into the advertisement of my
own sins. "Anytime you sell drugs, or pimp prostitutes, or defraud the insurance
companies in order to illegally obtain prescriptions, you cause a ripple effect
through the community that leads to more crimes being committed. In my eyes,
everyone one of you inmates is a drug dealer, murder, pimp and child molester",
he said. "There is no difference and this system is only set up to hold you, not
change you so you will always be drug dealers and child molesters and the
community will always be paying for you".

"Is everything black and
white?"
"This much is black and white: you run a unit store and it's against
the rules. No one really cares whether you sell candy bars and bags of chips-and
that's why I only harass you with shakedowns instead of writing you up-but it's
black and white that if you can't align yourself with the simplest rules in
here. there's no way that you will get out there and follow all the rules of
society when no one has an eye on you. You sell drugs and you'll beat people up
and you'll kill them if they push you far enough. This wasn't a debate to him,
he couldn't debate with an inmate anymore than he could help one
escape.

I had no desire to "win" this conversation, but I wanted to know
one thing, as he stepped toward me signaling we were done, I asked " Would it
seem possible that I may be a highly successful, law abiding citizen in society
if I didn't have "excessive" property in my cell? "You're a criminal, You
won't".

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About Me

I am a prisoner of the United States government in the state of Colorado, These are my articles, views, stories and thoughts that I have written throughout my incarceration, I am trying to get people out there aware of the changes that are needed to be seen and made to America's Prison System, for prison reform and prisoner rehabilitation. Please leave comments, advice or suggestions, I appreciate all feedback.

The American Prisoner

This is meant to inform the public not only of the condition of American prisons but moreso the mindset and values of their occupants. Those behind bars are as vastly different from one another as those on a college campus-many are whizbang hardcore convicts; others fail in this arena, overcome by fear and sadness; most are in an average, merely awaiting release, maintaining a status quo where the uncomfortable state of change is not required. This is not a cry for immediate sentence restructure of legal amendments for early release. This is not a cry for prison reform as much as it is an assertion-based on years of painful experience-that recidivism can only be apprehended by the reformation of the criminal mindset. This is as severe a call for change as impetus and response could require the public to consider. Crime is an ill to be fought at its breeding ground-prison.